Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a game that I have no problems saying I had reservations about when it was announced. I’ve always considered the Metal Gear franchise to be one of the best video game franchises, if not the very best. The games always feature excellent graphics for their time, tons of interesting social undertones, classic cutscenes and epic boss battles. It’s a formula that has worked extremely, with the franchise selling over 31 million copies to date. In general when you have a formula that works in a video game franchise you don’t change it, you refine and improve it. I tried to get Hideo Kojima, the game’s creator, to provide some insight about the motivation for doing Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance when I interviewed him but I couldn’t get much out of him. So with all that, what’s a dedicated Metal Gear fan to do? I decided that while I liked what I had been seeing in trailers and thought highly of the game’s developer, Platinum Games, I would reserve judgement until I actually got to go hands on. I’m happy to report that the game retains the classic Metal Gear feel while delivering something completely different and enjoyable.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance takes place four years after the events of Metal Gear Solid IV: Guns Of The Patriots. The game begins with Raiden working for PMC Maverick Enterprises protecting an African Prime Minister as he looks to engineer a better future for his country. Their convoy is attacked and everything goes to hell from their as Raiden comes face to face with a couple of members of the “Winds Of Destruction”. They get the better of him in this initial encounter, but these events send Raiden on a journey to discover exactly what’s going on. I’m not going to lie, as with all Metal Gear games, the story can become convoluted and hard to follow. The overall premise is simple enough but don’t be surprised if you find yourself a bit lost from time to time.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance opens with tons of action and that trend pretty much continues for the rest of the game. That’s already a major deviation from the classic Metal Gear formula which generally focuses on stealth. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance does have a few opportunities where being stealthy would be advantageous but even with the classic “cardboard box” up your sleeve, I found it difficult to move around undetected in most of those instances. That’s not to knock the game though, it’s not designed to be stealth focused, in fact I would say that this game encourages confrontation and with such an excellent combat system you wouldn’t see that as an issue.

The combat system in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is excellent and by far the highlight of the experience. Raiden’s primary weapon is his high-frequency katana blade (HF Blade). The game is at its core a classic hack and slash, in this case with a little Metal Gear flair. In addition to his trusty blade, Raiden will also acquire certain other “unique weapons” that he can purchase and equip that when combined with his HF Blade allow him to deliver devastating and brutal combos. The beautiful thing about combat in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is that it also serves a function. Raiden is outfitted with the latest cyborg enhancements, one of which allows him to regenerate fully health by collecting electrolytes from his fallen enemies. After doing enough damage, Raiden can go into “Blade mode”, which allows the player to use the right stick to free slice your enemies. As your begin slicing, a red target appears and if you hit this target, a quick-time event (QTE) will appear allowing you collect those electrolytes and instantly regenerate full health.

As in all Metal Gear games, the climax of combat is the Boss Battle. For those of you that were worried about seeing a letdown in the frustratingly difficulty quality of them have nothing to fear. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance features 6 (7 if you count Wolf) in all and each of them is a handful. As usual, each boss has their own style and weaknesses that you have to understand and exploit in order to defeat them. Every boss battle is intense and will push you to your limit.If you are having trouble with any of the boss battles, make sure you check out our Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Boss Battle guide for tips on how to take each of them down.

All in all Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is one heck of a game. The ability to customize Raiden allows each player to develop their character to fit their playstyle. The graphics are vibrant and bright. Blade mode beautifully adds uniqueness and depth to what would otherwise be standard hack and slash fare. As I sit here trying to think of any negatives for the game I’m failing to find anything of substance with only minor quirks coming to mind. Even though Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance isn’t part of the Metal Gear Solid series, it is technically part of the same universe and has carved out a nice little niche for itself. As the first non “Solid” game in the series, I think it should do wonders to develop other spinoff games based in the Metal Gear universe. If through some way you manage not to enjoy Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and want a more “traditional” Metal Gear experience then you’ll have to wait for Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes.

With respect to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, it’s a definite play for both Metal Gear fans as well as fighting fans and that is why we give Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance by Platinum Games 9 out of 10.

Second Quick Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Look by Alex Culafi:

In many ways, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a great game. Controlling Raiden through his journey of Revengeance is a blissful one, with great combat, as well as the wondrous slicing mechanic that I have never seen in a game before. Despite a relatively short length, the game is well-endowed with great boss fights and very well-designed environments. Even in saying this, Rising is not without faults; the difficulty is so imbalanced that choosing anything outside of Hard for the first time results in a cakewalk. Furthermore, health is very prominent and the story quickly falls apart halfway through when it cannot decide between complexity and simplicity. Regardless, I did enjoy my time with Rising, and though not for everyone, I bet some folks will surely get 60 dollars out of this usually excellent game.

I am the Co-Ceo of DLT Digital Media. We are a company that is focused on developing new and innovative web properties in addition to developing WordPress based web sites for others. But before I was all that, I was a gamer.